Council / Councillor calls for ‘rapid improvement’ in time taken to deal with audit recommendations
MORE frustration has emanated from elected members over Shetland Islands Council’s backlog of recommendations for change made by internal auditors.
Audit committee chair Allison Duncan called for “rapid improvement” in the number of outstanding recommendations.
At a meeting of the committee on Tuesday the Shetland South councillor successfully proposed for SIC officials to come up with a specific timeline plan for clearing the backlog.
The committee was told by internal auditors that 46 recommendations remained outstanding as of late October, with the oldest having an original due date of October 2019.
The SIC contracts Audit Glasgow to perform checks on a variety of processes within the local authority.
The auditor then may issue recommendations for improvements for the council to act on.
Jillian Campbell from Audit Glasgow said 26 recommendations had been implemented since the committee last met in June.
“We continue to work with management to clear as many of the recommendations as possible,” she said, adding that while there has been a “good trajectory” momentum needs to be maintained.
Campbell also said a number of the recommendations are partially implemented and that SIC officials are “chipping away”.
Lerwick South councillor Cecil Smith, however, asked whether it was acceptable that one – related to business continuity – was originally due to be implemented in 2019.
“I think we have a responsibility to get our house in order,” he said. “31st of October 2019 to now, and we still have all these outstanding – I think that it’s time the committee took a grip of it.”
SIC depute leader Gary Robinson added: “We’re just not getting ahead on this and I think we really do need to apply some scrutiny to this and some pressure to get the numbers down overall, because that’s just not happening at the moment.”
There was also concern shown about how the last audit committee was held back in June, with Lerwick North and Bressay member Stephen Leask suggesting this could hamper councillors’ ability to apply scrutiny.
SIC corporate services director Christine Ferguson said one meeting had been postponed as a report from Audit Scotland was not yet available, while she said an agenda for a meeting had been withdrawn because a report contained “inaccurate information”.
Ferguson told councillors that it could be possible to provide update reports to members if there are lengthy periods between meetings again.
Duncan meanwhile said the committee has been patient regarding the backlog of outstanding recommendations.
“In the past progress has been slow in implementing the outstanding recommendations delivered by external audit,” he said.
“This situation now needs to be addressed and improved.”
Duncan successful proposed that the audit committee instructs chief executive Maggie Sandison in conjunction with the director of corporate services to “come up with specific timeline plan for clearing backlog of outstanding audit recommendations from 2023 and earlier”.
Vice-chair Catherine Hughson also said it is “totally unacceptable” for high priority recommendations just to be repeatedly given new due dates.
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